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Preserving Ancient Manuscripts in Mali

The ‘‘Words of Wisdom – Ancient Manuscripts of Mali’’ project supported by the Franco-German Fund aims at fostering the reappropriation of a centuries-long memory and at helping safeguard a national heritage of a universal dimension.

From October 1 to October 17, 2015, the “Words of Wisdom – Ancient Manuscripts of Mali’’ project included exhibits, conferences, discussions, workshops and screenings in Bamako as well as in four other cities in Mali, based on this centuries-long heritage battered by a host of destructions in the last three years. Educational workshops have also been set up to train teachers and technicians in the technical gestures involved in preservation, digitization and cataloguing.

While Mali is today committed to a peace and reconciliation process, this event intended to contribute to reappropriating a historic and humanistic memory shared between Arab cultures, North African and West African alike. In the long term, the project’s aim is to foster the emergence of mobilization at the national and international level in favor of safeguarding this national cultural heritage of a universal dimension and strengthen coordination in campaigns, in an effort to safeguard heritage, between the Malian government and actors of the civil society.

The project, initiated by the Institut français of Mali and the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, is supported by the Franco-German Cultural Fund, in the aim of Franco-German cooperation in third countries.